Wicked Weed to build production facility in Enka

Wednesday

Aug 6, 2014 at 3:00 AM

Western North Carolina's nationally renowned craft beer scene has taken another major leap forward, as Wicked Weed Brewing of Asheville announced Friday it is investing $5 million over the next three years to build a new production facility in Enka.

By GARY GLANCYTimes-News correspondent

ASHEVILLE — Western North Carolina's nationally renowned craft beer scene has taken another major leap forward, as Wicked Weed Brewing of Asheville announced Friday it is investing $5 million over the next three years to build a new production facility in Enka that will be among the largest in the region.Wicked Weed partners made the announcement during a preview for local media, economic development leaders and Buncombe County commissioners of Wicked Weed's soon-to-open, second downtown location on Coxe Avenue, the Funkatorium barrel house and sour-beer tasting room, where the award-winning brewery will eventually store up to 1,000 of its beer-aging wooden vessels.The brewery unveiled plans for a third facility, a production and distribution center where several of Wicked Weed's popular year-round and seasonal beers will be bottled (and eventually canned) and self-distributed throughout North Carolina. The 30-barrel brew house will be capable of yielding 50,000 barrels of beer annually, numbers that as recently as two years ago would have made it the largest craft brewery in the Carolinas.The new 40,000-square-foot plant, located in Enka Commerce Park off Sand Hill Road, will be near New Belgium Brewing Co.'s East Coast distribution center currently undergoing site preparation. The Wicked Weed facility sits on more than 6 acres of land, said brewer and partner Luke Dickinson, and may eventually include a tasting room and possible music/events venue.Brewing is expected to be underway by fall 2015, and the new venture will create more than 80 jobs in addition to the 145 workers the company currently employs.Wicked Weed partner Rick Guthy said many communities in and outside the region tried to lure Wicked Weed to move the project to their towns and cities, but in the end the brewery's leaders decided they wanted to keep all the company's operations in Asheville, where they started.Wicked Weed began in December 2012 when it opened its popular brewpub on Biltmore Avenue, next to the Orange Peel, and quickly gained national acclaim for its wide variety of innovative beer styles. Wicked Weed's popularity soared beyond the Southeast when the then-rookie brewery took home a gold medal at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival, the largest commercial beer competition in the world.In December 2013, The Poe House in downtown Hendersonville became Wicked Weed's only WNC draft-beer account outside the brewery. The tavern and retail shop also now carries Wicked Weed beers in bottle.